This is the moment a two-year-old boy was rescued from a Kmart parking lot after he was abandoned by a shopper who left with a wide-screen TV - just one of the shocking incidents on a day of chaos on Black Friday yesterday.

Anthony Perry, 35, of Springfield, Massachusetts is facing arrested for
leaving the child unattended and he faces potential child neglect
charges. Authorities found the child sleeping in Perry's Nissan Venza in
the Kmart parking lot and broke into the vehicle to get him out. The
vehicle was towed and the child was taken to a hospital for a check-up.
Video footage shows an officer carrying the child in a car seat from
Perry's car to the ambulance.

Perry left the boy in his car around 1:30 a.m., as he went inside Kmart to buy a 51-inch flat screen television. When Perry left the Kmart, he saw that his car - with the child inside - was missing and he later told authorities that he phoned a friend to give him a ride home.

Discovery: Police found a toddler left alone in his car seat in a vehicle parked outside Kmart

Rescued: Police lift a two-year-old boy who is strapped into his car seat onto an ambulance after they found the boy abandoned in a car. The boy was taken to a hospital for a check-up and he is doing fine

Police tracked Perry to his home and found him there with his new television. He never reported the child missing, according to authorities. He told police that he had been babysitting for his girlfriend, who was working, and claimed that he brought the child inside the Kmart with him and that's where he believed he lost the toddler.

Perry's alleged neglect is just one of a
series of arrests and scuffles reported on Black Friday, as bargain-hungry shoppers
clawed for once-a-year sales.

In the most shocking outburst of
violence, a man and woman were shot after a confrontation outside a
Walmart of Apalachee Parkway in Tallahassee, Florida just before 1 pm.

Police have not released details about what led to the shooting, but both victims have non life-threatening injuries.

Trouble also escalated at a San
Antonio mall after a shopper allegedly pulled a gun on another man who had
tried to cut to the front of the line at a Sears, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

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The man had rushed into the store when it
opened Thursday night to get to the front of a line and started arguing
with people as he tried cutting in front of them.

In Santa Monica, California shoppers surging into an Urban Outfitters store on the Third Street Promenade smashed through a tall glass door, injuring five people police said.

Paramedics at the scene the Black Friday shoppers but no one was transported to hospital said Sgt. Marty Fine of the Santa Monica Police Department.

And in New York City, police officer Jenny Mendez, 28, of the Midtown North Precinct was charged with petit larcney and criminal possession of stolen property after she allegedly shoplifted from a Midtwon Manhattan store.

In Oceanside, California, a man openly heckled shoppers outside a Best Buy calling them 'zombies' and claimed their behaviour was the 'reason Thanksgiving and the holidays are being destroyed.'

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The man in the centre of the image in the black jacket heckles Black Friday shoppers by calling them 'Zombies'

Like animals: As a $5 deal for headphones drops in Walmart, the crowd goes wild to grab a pair

Overwhelmed: A Twitter user from Juneau, Alaska shared this photo of a cashier passed out in a Dick's store

Rush: The cashier is taken from the store by paramedics. The Twitter user said shoppers paid no attention

Outburst: A crowd gathers as security guards break up a fight between angered shoppers waiting in line before the doors open at Target in Bowling Green, Kentucky

A
man who was punched in the face during the scuffle pulled a gun and
shoppers scattered. But the man had
a gun permit and has not been charged with a crime.

Outside a Kmart in Indianapolis,
which opened at 6 am on Thursday, officers responded to a brawl between
shoppers as some attempted to sell vouchers the store had handed out for
limited items.

'Everybody started going crazy about
it, and then the cops got called in and it just became a madhouse,' one
shopper told News 8.

And at a Kmart on Stockton Boulevard
in South Sacremento, one shopper threatened to stab people while waiting
in line for K-Mart's doors to open and told people he 'wasn't joking'.

In Orlando, a woman was arrested for allegedly throwing merchandise in a Walmart and in Maryland, a 14-year-old boy was robbed of his Thanksgiving night purchases by five men outside a Bed, Bath and Beyond.

Also amid the shopping frenzy, two
customers - a husband and a wife - were hit by a car in the parking lot
of a Walmart on the edge of Seattle on Thursday evening, with the wife
being airlifted to hospital after the accident which saw her pinned
under the vehicle.

VIDEOS: Black Friday fights break out across America...

In one Walmart,

Busted: Samantha Chavez, 28, is arrested in a Walmart in Altamonte Springs, Florida after causing a scene

Battle: Shoppers fought for deals in the shoe department at the Columbiana Centre Belk in South Carolina

Ready: Shoppers position themselves for midnight openings at the Clackamas Town Center, Oregon

The chaos began as millions lined up
outside stores for the biggest shopping day of the year, with one of the
first giant scrums starting at a Walmart where families elbowed each
other to get their hands on a pair of $5 headphones.

The scuffle was captured on a video posted to
YouTube by a father who brought his two children along to the sales. The youngsters are filmed sitting in a
shopping trolley as the person with the camera asks them if they're
'here for the craziness' adding that they are about to watch people
fight over a $5 deal for a pair of headphones.

A large crowd is standing in a circle around the box of headphones waiting for the go-ahead from the Walmart staff.

The
cameraman, posting on YouTube as David Quigley, struggles to keep his
camera steady as the deal drops and the crowd goes wild, throwing
themselves over the box.

Men, women and children are seen mercilessly elbowing each other as they shove to grab a pair.

Arrest: Samantha Chavez, who was filmed as she was arrested in a Walmart in Florida, allegedly threw merchandise on the floor

There was also drama elsewhere. One shopper from Juneau, Alaska tweeted a
picture of a woman being carried from a Dick's store on a stretcher as
crowds focused on the shelves.

With sales on Black Friday expected
to soar by 3.8 per cent this year to a staggering $11.4 billion,
thousands of shoppers queued around blocks before stores opened. As many
as 11,000 lined around Macy's flagship store in New York City's Herald Square before it threw open its doors.

In Woodland Mall in Kentwood, Michigan, two teenagers were arrested
after a brawl broke out between 15 men outside a JC Penney at 1.30am.
Witnesses said pepper spray was used.

At a Walmart in Altamonte Springs,
Florida, 28-year-old Samantha Chavez was arrested after being disruptive
in the traffic line, and allegedly bullying the officer directing
vehicles.

Once inside the store, she allegedly threw merchandise on the
floor.

Witnesses, who caught the arrest on video, claimed she only made a scene after losing her sister in the store and becoming scared, CFNews13 reported.

Police also responded to reports of
shooting at 1am in In Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, where nine
people were killed five years ago.

Authorities
later learned that while a fight had broken out, witnesses had heard
trash cans being knocked over, rather than gunshots. There were no
arrests.

An hour later at nearby Oak View
Mall, police got into a scuffle with a shoplifter who allegedly tried to
spray mace at store security guards.

Another
video from Black Friday shows hundreds of girls and women storming the
entrance of a Victoria's Secret Pink store at Oak Park Mall, Kansas as
it opened at midnight.

Mindboggling: Thousands of bargain-hungry shoppers queue at dawn before a Best Buy opens

Excitement: Girls enter through the doors of a Forever 21 clothing store in Oregon on Friday

Getting comfortable: A young child hides from the crowds at a branch of Target in Atlanta, Georgia

Stocking up: A customer shops for toys at a Walmart Store in Chicago on Black Friday

Stocking up: This customer appeared to have purchased several pricey electronic goods at a Walmart in Dallas

BLACK FRIDAY: FACTS, FIGURES AND FRANTIC SHOPPERS

147 million people are expected to shop this Thanksgiving weekend

Stores are expected to make a total of $11.4 billion on Black Friday

The average spend per customer is expected to be $398

In 2008, Walmart employee Jdimytai Damour
was trampled to death on Black Friday when shoppers at Green Acres
Shopping Center, Valley Street, New York pushed the doors open and
streamed inside. Paramedics who arrived to help him were also trampled
and seriously injured

Last year, two dozen shoppers at a Walmart in California were pepper sprayed as Elizabeth Macias, 33, battled them for reduced video games

'Black Friday' is believed be
the day retailers get 'in the black' because of the profits they make.
But the term was first used in January 1966,
when Bonnie Taylor-Black of the American Dialect Society wrote: 'Black
Friday is the name which the Philadelphia Police Department has given to
the Friday following Thanksgiving Day. It is not a term of endearment
to them. 'Black Friday' officially opens the Christmas shopping season
in center city, and it usually brings massive traffic jams and
over-crowded sidewalks as the downtown stores are mobbed from opening to
closing.'

According to Google Trends, people started widely searching online for 'Black Friday' on October 14

Some eager shoppers have been camping out at a Best Buy in California since November 12 - that's 11 days before doors opened

And as crowds swarmed the parking lot
of a Covington, Washington Walmart, two people were ploughed down by a
driver police believe was drunk.

A woman was pinned beneath the car,
driven by a 71-year-old, and flown to hospital, where she was listed in
serious condition. A man was also hit but is in good condition.

The shopping frenzy got off to its earliest ever start as the nation's customers put down their turkey and headed straight to the malls, with some stores opening as early as 6am on Thanksgiving.

Shops typically open in the small hours of the morning on the day after the national holiday - named Black Friday because it is traditionally when they turn a profit for the year.

But openings have crept earlier and earlier over the past few years and this year, stores such as Target and Toys R Us opened on Thanksgiving evening, while retailers from Macy's to Best Buy opened their doors at midnight on Black Friday.

Despite the YouTube videos, many shoppers claimed the crowds were
largely peaceful, avoiding the riots seen in previous years.

Stores from Target to Toys R Us
opened their doors on Thanksgiving evening, hoping Americans will be
willing to shop soon after they finish their pumpkin pie.

Target
opened its doors at 9pm on the holiday, three hours earlier than last
year. Sears, which didn't open on Thanksgiving last year, opened at 8pm
on Thursday through 10pm on Black Friday.

Toys R Us opened at 8pm, an hour earlier than last year. And others such as Macy's are opening at midnight on Black Friday.

Overall,
about 17 percent of shoppers planned to take advantage of Thanksgiving
hours, according to a International Council of Shopping Centers-Goldman
Sachs survey of 1,000 consumers.

It is estimated that sales on Black Friday would be up 3.8 percent on last year, to a total of $11.4billion.

Michael
Prothero, 19, and Kenny Fullenlove, 20, were even willing to miss
Thanksgiving dinner altogether for deals. They started camping out on
Monday night outside a Best Buy store in Toledo, Ohio, which was slated
to open at midnight.

Swamped: A Walmart is bursting with customers with carts full of cut-down gifts and gadgets

Quick! This shopper in Marion, Illinois was wasting no time joining the Black Friday mob

Hot item: Shoppers grab electric griddles on sale for $8 after doors opened at JC Penney in Las Vegas

The
friends, who were waiting to get 40-inch televisions, videogames and a
tablet computer, came early to make sure they got the deals advertised
by Best Buy, even though the next person in line didn't arrive until
almost 24 hours later.

'Better safe than sorry,' Prothero said.

'I ate my turkey dinner and came right
here,' said Rasheed Ali, a 23-year-old student in New York City who
bought a 50-inch Westinghouse TV for $349 and a Singer sewing machine
for $50. 'Then I'm going home and eating more.'

Retailers are trying everything they can to lure consumers into stores by making shopping as easy as possible.

Finally! The first group of shoppers enter Target after it opened in Burbank, California

Bargains: Shoppers wait in line at Target on Thanksgiving after scrambling for the best deals

Mob: The world-famous department store was so full shoppers could barely move

In
addition to expanding their hours into Thanksgiving, many are offering
free layaways and shipping, matching the cheaper prices of online rivals
and updating their mobile shopping apps with more information.

'Every
retailer wants to beat everyone else,' said C. Britt Beemer, chairman
of America's Research Group, a research firm based in Charleston, South Carolina.
'Shoppers love it.'

There were 11 shoppers in a four-tent encampment outside a Best Buy
store near Ann Arbor, Michigan. The purpose of their wait? A $179
40-inch Toshiba LCD television is worth missing Thanksgiving dinner at
home.

Jackie
Berg, 26, of Ann Arbor, arrived first with her stepson and a friend
Wednesday afternoon, seeking three of the televisions. The deal makes
the TVs $240 less than their normal price, so Berg says that she'll save
more than $700.

It's
her first time camping out for the specials, and she's not sure she will
do it again. Relatives will bring her some holiday dinner, but she'll
miss eating her dad's stuffing right as he cooks it.

'We'll miss the actual being there with family, but we'll have the rest of the weekend for that,' she said.

Carey Maguire, 33, and her sister Caitlyn Maguire, 21, showed up at Target in East Harlem neighborhood of New York City at 7pm.

Their
goal was to buy several Nooks, which were on sale for $49. But while
waiting in line they were also using their iPhone to do some online
buying at rival stores.

Anticipation: 11,000 people were thought to have lined up outside Macy's in New York

Cold wait: Freezing temperatures and snow did not stop shoppers Jocelyn Polansky, left, and Jill Yde who wrapped up as they waited for a Target store in Baxter, Minnesota to open on Thursday night

Popular: Even trendy Manhattanites were keen to grab some savings on Black Friday

Job done: People carry shopping bags as they walk through Herald Square in New York

Success! Simon Carraro of Italy sits with his purchases at the Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, Georgia

'If
you're going to spend, I want to make it worth it,' said Caitlyn
Maguire, a college student, who spent a total of $175 on Amazon, Best
Buy and Radio Shack during her two-hour wait.

With
41 million people predicted to have shopped on what has been dubbed 'Gray
Thursday', police responded to fights and threats between
bargain-hungry customers, some of whom have camped outside stores for
days.

The spats added to the
discontent surrounding the stores, with employees frustrated about
working on Thanksgiving, and Walmart workers threatening to protest over
their pay, schedules and benefits.

Family outing: A father and his two daughters celebrate being let in to Best Buy in Mesquite, Texas

Organisation: Staff ensure that customers are limited to one super-discounted television per person at Target in Burbank, California

At a Kmart on Stockton Boulevard in South Sacremento, one shopper
threatened to stab people while waiting in line for K-Mart's doors to
open and told people he 'wasn't joking'.

Police
arrived at the scene shortly after the threat - made after shop staff
came outside to hand out 'doorbuster deal' vouchers to the first in the
line - to help control the crowds.

In
a bid to minimize trouble, the Los Angeles Police Department deployed
helicopters over some malls, while a cavalry of police officers on bikes
and horses monitored from streets below.

Stocking up: This boy was intent on grabbing as much as he could at Toys R Us in Manchester, New Hampshire

Scramble: Bargain hunters rummage through stacks of DVDs and video games at Walmart in Fairfax, Virginia

Success! Jovel Cetoute feels it was all worth it after queuing for hours in Pembroke Pines, Florida

Tiring work: A shopper takes a nap with her purchases at the Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta, Georgia

DISGRUNTLED WORKERS FIGHT EMPLOYERS OVER THANKSGIVING

Workers across the country are lambasting stores for opening on Thanksgiving - and stealing them away from their families.

'It's all about what the consumer
wants,' Target security guard John Crable told The Detroit News. 'I feel
this is a tryout. I don't think (retailers) will find the experience
will justify cheapening their employees' Thanksgiving experience.'

Workers from stores including Target and Walmart have signed petitions at Change.org demanding shops stay closed.

One petition started by a Target employee, Casey St Clair, gathered 350,000 signatures.

'I felt like that was kind of
crossing the line, breaching into the day that we all had off,' St Clair
told WCCO after taking the signatures to Target's headquarters in
Minneapolis.

But in response, Target said that other workers were happy to have the overtime hours.

'The first thing we did was reach
out to all of our store leaders and ask them to have discussions with
their team members and seek volunteers wanting to work,' said Tina
Schiel, executive vice president of stores for Target.

'We had so many team members who
wanted to work on Thursday that hundreds of our stores are now keeping
lists of volunteers who want to work if shifts open up.'

Roughly one-third of Target's store employees will be working on Thanksgiving, earning overtime pay for the holiday.

According to the L.A. Times, others scoured crowds from rooftops and signs warned shoppers against becoming victims of theft.

It
comes after a series of previous Black Friday incidents; at a Wal-Mart
in the city last year, scores of people were injured when a woman pepper
sprayed her competition in a bid for discounted video games. Two years
ago, gunfire broke out at a Toys R Us, killing two people.

'For some people, shopping is a
competitive sport,' LAPD Cmdr. Andy Smith told the paper. 'But it should
not be a contact sport.'

Officers
are also working with stores to keep violent outbursts under control,
and Best Buy even participated in training drills to handle the large
crowds.

The Walmart
where the pepper spray incident occurred will hand out vouchers for some
items to avoid a scramble. If customers do not get a voucher for the
item, they should expect there will be none left, management told the Times.

Police have
also spoken with other stores about staggering entry times to control
the numbers of shoppers in the store at any time.

Officials
told shops: 'This process has been very successful at many of the major
theme parks and can help to ensure organized, safe entry into your
business.'

Adding to the chaos could be strikes
from Wal-Mart employees who are planning protests after they felt the
company punished them for speaking out for better pay, fair schedules
and health care.

After a
pre-Thanksgiving walkout and repeated actions, Walmart filed a
complaint last week with the National Labor Relations Board, claiming
that the protesters had violated labor laws.

Yet no ruling is expected to be
reached in time and unions believe thousands will take part, raising
uncertainty over how the giant retailer will be able to cope with
millions of shoppers.

Gridlock: Shoppers wait patiently to get through the crowds at Toys R Us in Manchester

Festive cheer: Lisa Wagner, of West Bend, Wisconsin waits to check out at home improvement store Menards

Crowds: Shoppers fill Macy's during the Black Friday sales - the official start of the holiday shopping season

But
on Monday, Walmart tweeted: 'Don't believe everything you read in the
union press releases. We don't think their #BlackFriday activity will
have an impact on customers.'

The
preparations come after some of
the nation's largest chains, including Toys R Us and Target, opened
through Thursday in a bid to make more money than ever over the Black
Friday
weekend.

'Retailers are
now commercialising Thanksgiving, giving the opportunity to the
consumer who doesn’t want to watch 12 hours of football,' said Marshal
Cohen from consumer research firm NPD Group.

'It's no longer Christmas creep, it's the Christmas crush. This is about beating the competition.'

And for retailers, it makes sense.
Last year, stores which extended their hours saw sales soar by up to 22
per cent over the weekend, while those retailers that did not lost up to
8 per cent.

Stocking up: A woman and her daughter push a heavy shopping cart at Target in Burbank, California

Big spenders: A cashier rings up purchases in Burbank. The average spend is expected to be $398

Anticipation: Crowds swell outside an H&M store in the early hours of Friday

Joel Waldfogel, chair of applied economics at University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, told WCCO:
'Once your competitors open on Thanksgiving, it’s a disaster for you if
you’re not open on Thanksgiving. There is actually believable evidence
that the longer the holiday shopping season is, the more people actually
spend.'

The
National Retail Federation predicts 147million Americans will shop
over Thanksgiving weekend, and that there will be an increase of holiday
sales of 4.1 per cent on last year.

Patience: Customers wait in line at Target in Fairfax, Virginia

Held back: Toys R Us in Fairfax had to employ crowd control to manage the hordes of bargain hunters

Huddled masses: The scene outside a branch of Best Buy in Mesquite, Texas

With
stores opening earlier, the retail industry has crossed the Black
Friday barrier and it might creep further forward still, Kimberly
Taylor, an associate professor from Florida International University,
told the Miami Herald.

'It is becoming almost a whole season,'
she said. 'Where is it going to end? Will it take away the whole Black
Friday if it is the whole week or the whole season?'

Packed: This mall in South Florida had its parking lot completely full around midnight on Black Friday

On your marks... Customers wait in line at a Kmart in Chicago, which opened at 6am on Thanksgiving

Police presence: Officers watch a Walmart in Porter Ranch, California where a woman pepper sprayed her shopping competition last year. The LAPD are deploying helicopters and more officers this year

There will also be early sales online
as discounts are offered ahead of the internet's equivalent of Black
Friday - Cyber Monday.

The deals are expected to boost sales made on Thanksgiving last year, when online spending rose 18 per cent to $479million.On Black Friday, sales soared 26 per cent to $816 million.

But
not all employees are happy about the changes, with some workers
signing petitions at change.org demanding stores including Target and
Walmart stay closed on Thursday.

One petition started by a Target
employee, Casey St Clair, was entitled 'Target: Take the High Road and
Save Thanksgiving' and had gathered 350,000 signatures.

'I
felt like that was kind of crossing the line, breaching into the day
that we all had off,' St Clair told WCCO after taking the signatures to
Target's headquarters in Minneapolis.

But in response, Target told the Orange County Register that other workers were happy to have the overtime hours.

Long wait: Tony Avitar sits in his tent outside the Best Buy in Cuyahoga Fall, Ohio after setting it up last Thursday to snag the best deals. This is his ninth year camping out

Comfort: People bring beds and sleeping bags to wait outside a Best Buy in Scottsdale, Arizona

Camping out: A crowd gathers by Best Buy in Victorville, California. The store opens at midnight Thursday

Devoted: Nick Valencia, left, and his friend Ashkan Aghassi light a heater at their camp in Irvine, California

'When
we made the decision to open our doors at 9pm on Thanksgiving, the
first thing we did was reach out to all of our store leaders and ask
them to have discussions with their team members and seek volunteers
wanting to work,' Tina Schiel, executive vice president of stores for
Target, said.

'We had so many team members who
wanted to work on Thursday that hundreds of our stores are now keeping
lists of volunteers who want to work if shifts open up.'

Opening
on Thanksgiving - which was virtually non existent three years ago -
begs the question whether stores will soon be open on Christmas, causing
even more heartache for families.

But Waldfogel, from Carlson School of Management, suggested this might backfire.

'It’s
possible that some people would find it so distasteful that you're open
on Christmas that they’d actually get upset with you and not patronize
you for the rest of the year,' he said.